Anatol Konstantinovich Liadov (1855 -1914)

Anatol Konstantinovich Liadov was born into a musical family. His grandfather had been a musician and his father was, for eighteen years, until 1868, conductor at the Maryinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, where his son was born in 1855.

The Rubinstein brothers, Anton and Nikolay, had established conservatories of music in St. Petersburg and Moscow in the 1860s. In this necessary venture they were opposed by the nationalist composers grouped round Balakirev and advised by the polymath Stasov. Anton had, with some justification, criticised the amateurism of the group, while Stasov, on the other hand, feared the professional regimentation of German-style conservatories.

Liadov learned music first from his father but was to benefit from the initiative of the Rubinsteins, entering the St. Petersburg Conservatory in 1870. His early studies in piano and violin were soon replaced by lessons in counterpoin